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By:
Harison Maina | |||||||||
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Aug,03-2020 10:49:18
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"They looked at whether this drug can bind to the enzyme that is used by the virus to make new proteins replicate its nucleic generic material genetic material and uses those materials to form new viruses.The drug we have prevents this virus from making those new proteins.This means that if it cannot make proteins, it cannot make new viruses," said Dr. Njoroge. He said that the mechanism by which the drug was designed to combat the Hep–C virus is working effectively to combat the Corona virus as it shows where the virus is, where it is working etc.This, according to the Kenyan scientist, was an exciting departure from the current three different methods treatments being studied by many scientists around the world to combat Covid-19 including vaccines, antibodies and small molecule repurposing using old drugs to treat a new disease. "Now we can play around with that molecule, make it better and more importantly if we get resistance, we know where that resistance is coming from and we can modify the drug."
He added that although very promising, the current findings are at a very early stage but researchers are gearing to start studies with animal subjects before the final stage of randomized clinical trials with human subjects. Dr. Njoroge clarified that during the randomized trials, researchers will administer the drug to two control groups in a population of Covid-19 patients where one group will be given the Victrellis drug and a different group getting a placebo drug (plain substance with no drug). "Nobody knows what they are getting. At the end of the study, they will break the code and see from the data they get, whether the drug is effective or not. This is a double blind, randomized study," he assured. However, researchers have to wait for the World Health Organization (WHO) to approve clinical trials as soon as the animal studies are complete in order to estimate the time it will take for the drug to come into the market if found effective in human beings. He praised other scientists in the world who are seeking treatments for Covid-19 round the clock some of which have found promising results. He also praised the efforts made by Kenya and African countries in combating Covid-19 with social distancing measures and testing as compared to other countries including the USA where media reports show many people downplaying the danger posed by Covid-19. Njoroge warned that viruses are small but deadly in their impact if not combated in time. "We should not be complacent. This is a deadly disease. Viruses are deadly things; we cannot play around with them. We have to continue to do everything within our means to make sure we adhere to things we have been told about such as social distancing, washing out hands and staying at home". Njoroge dismissed many models from the western world that had predicted a catastrophe in Africa from Covid-19 pandemic, saying that Africa has done much better than many western countries in managing the pandemic and thus saved a lot of lives. He said quick and early efforts by Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta to sensitize the public against the dangers of the disease including shut down the country from all international flights. He also praised Kenya's health minister, Mutahi Kagwe for keeping Kenyan's updated with daily Corona virus reports which is very important. Njoroge added that the Kenyan public has also played a very important role at keeping the corona virus cases low as compared to other parts of the world by their relative adherence to social distancing and hygiene measures.
"Africa is a very interesting place because its climate is conducive to these bugs growing and they thought when this comes, Africa will be most affected unfortunately they have been proved wrong. This is something we should be happy about and I hope we will come out of it without too much damage". He warned Africans from premature celebration of alleged discoveries by their own as reflected by the rumored "Madagascar wonder herb" that has been claimed to cure Covid-19 without any shred of scientific evidence. "Celebrating is one thing, but we have to follow science. Discovery of medicine is very difficult and complex. If you hear someone saying that they have something that can cure, the question you have to ask is, where is the data--show me the data.This data can only come from double-blind, reliable clinical trials as I have just said above". He said that even in western world, some people also believed in treatments that were not backed by reliable, scientific data, which posed a danger for patients everywhere. He cited the much-hyped effectiveness of Hydroxychroloquine at treating Covid-19 in the USA, which only came from initial anecdotal data without conducting controlled studies. "Once they conducted controlled, randomized studies with Hydroxychroloquine, they did not see the efficacy they had talked about. I know these medicines and herbal medicines could be very useful, but what we really need is to do thorough clinical trials to establish that these medicines are really working, it's not anecdotal," the scientist warned. He urged Kenyans to be very careful and protect themselves against contracting Covid -19 since effective treatments and vaccines could take a long time. "We don't know whether we will get some or not. "It took us about 15 years to find the first oral drug for Hepatitis-C. I am not saying that Hep-C was more complicated than Covid-19. I am hopeful we will get a drug for Covid-19 sooner, but how sooner, nobody knows because we are researching the unknown". He said that Kenyans and human beings all over the world should also prepare for the eventuality that an effective cure many not be found soon, hence can find others ways of living with and managing the Covid-19 virus just as they have lived with HIV-virus that has not effective cure as of yet, but has been managed though the use of other drugs. "But if we can get a drug, fair enough. We will be blessed for that," he concluded. In an interview with Ajabu Media, Njoroge added that although the Victrellis drug is no longer in active production due to an influx of newer best in class Hep-C drugs inspired by his ground breaking invention, it could come back to make a significant addition to new therapies to fight the Covid-19 virus in a big way | |||||||||
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Source:
AJABU AFRICA NEWS
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